ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book examines the various refractions, reflections, and representations of masculinity one finds in George Sand's work, and which give rise to a multi-layered conceptualization of the term, at once individual identity, cultural construct, and component of literary representation. It explores the nineteenth-century concepts of masculinity led to an examination of representations of masculinity, focusing both on dominant and marginalized forms as a means of highlighting what Sand adds to cultural concepts of masculinity. The book explores the homosocial as a forum of the affirmation of masculinity, as well as showing how Sand's first novel posits it as the space of realist representation. It focuses on the failures of masculinity in Sand's work, with particular reference to the operation of sexual and narrative desire, and drew out the significance of this for Sand's renegotiation of realist poetics and mythological intertexts.
